Brazil Clears BRL 181.7 Billion Voltalia Data Center at Pecem With 322.5 MW Grid Connection

Brazil's National Council of Export Processing Zones (CZPE) approved a megadatacenter inside the export processing zone at the Pecem Industrial and Port Complex in Caucaia, Ceara, under the responsibility of Voltalia Energia do Brasil. The investment is set at BRL 181.7 billion, the largest share of the BRL 206 billion the council released for five projects.

The site already holds 322.5 MW of contracted grid connection capacity and will occupy roughly 62 hectares within the port complex, according to Voltalia. That connection volume was first secured in June, when the company registered a 322 MW connection guarantee, a figure that reappears almost unchanged in the company's note on the CZPE approval. The connection contract was formalised with the Operador Nacional do Sistema Eletrico, Brazil's national grid operator.

Voltalia plans to expand its own wind and solar plants to serve the data center's power demand, and to use reuse water for equipment cooling. The company holds 3.6 GW of capacity in operation and under construction, plus a development pipeline of 12 GW, and employs more than 1,900 people across 15 countries.

Construction is expected to require 2,300 direct jobs, with a further 400 once the complex is operating. The Caucaia municipal government said the project will sit entirely within its territory and cited the same employment figures.

Five industrial and services projects were authorised across the export processing zones of Pecem in Ceara, Bacabeira in Maranhao and Parnaiba in Piaui, totalling BRL 206 billion. The council expects the package to generate about BRL 40 billion in new exports per year from 2029. Green hydrogen, e-methanol and hot briquetted iron projects advanced at Bacabeira in the same session, with the iron projects run in partnership with miner Vale. Green hydrogen projects in Maranhao are led by H2X and Hydeas.

Pecem already hosts a rival data center project. Omnia, working with Casa dos Ventos, is building capacity to host TikTok data in Brazil at a total of BRL 50 billion, of which BRL 12 billion is infrastructure and BRL 3.5 billion is dedicated wind farms, for a facility designed to run at up to 300 MW. That investment package, led by TikTok owner ByteDance with Omnia and Casa dos Ventos, exceeds BRL 200 billion and was approved under different legal conditions.

The tax framework underpinning the business model has shifted. Provisional Measure 1,307, which granted data centers a zero PIS/Cofins rate provided they ran on renewable sources, lapsed, with its expiry at the end of 2025 altering the validity of benefits central to the model. Bill 278/2026, known as Redata, is treated as the fix for the resulting regulatory gap. Senate President Davi Alcolumbre signalled the item will be a priority in an upcoming concentrated-effort session.

The scope of eligible energy sources is contested. Abegas, the Brazilian association of piped gas distributors, is seeking to have natural gas included as an eligible source under the special regime. "It makes no sense to create blocks and exclude natural gas, which is the transition energy source," said Marcelo Mendonca, executive director of Abegas.

Voltalia still has to complete procedures with the Receita Federal following the CZPE decision. Rafael Sa, president of the Ceara export processing zone, said approval of the new data center reinforces investor confidence in the zone and in the state's potential to host large digital-economy projects.

The combination on display at Pecem is what makes the decision legible to capital allocators outside Brazil: a single 322 MW load anchored to a developer building its own wind and solar supply, sited in an export processing zone whose fiscal treatment for data centers currently depends on pending legislation. The French developer's approval also stacks a second hyperscale load onto the same complex that already carries a project designed for up to 300 MW.